Diana Dillaber Murray, Royal Oak Daily Tribune
In this 20th anniversary of the advent of charter schools in Michigan, the national Center for Education Reform has ranked the state a high fourth place in providing state policies and laws that allow the independent public academies to grow and thrive, including state aid legislation that guarantees funding that is equal to traditional public school districts.
Statewide, there are 297 charter schools in Michigan, according to the report. In Oakland County there are more than 20, the majority in Pontiac, Waterford and Southfield, which puts it in the top five in the nation.
The majority of charter schools are located in low income urban or rural areas where parents want more options for their children. Most are chartered by universities and operated by private companies.
At the same time as parents are taking advantage of choice and hundreds of children are leaving their home school to go to a charter school, public school district officials are complaining the charters are taking the state funding with them, leaving many in deficit or trying stay out of deficit.
The mushrooming of charter schools is one of the major factors that has caused declining enrollment and funding problems in public school districts, according to a recent Oakland Press report that cited Moody’s Investor’s Services and county school officials.
”We are very high in charters and the highest in for profit charters,” said Vicki Markavitch, Oakland Schools superintendent. “It is hard to compare their results with comprehensive K-12s as they operate less expensive K-8 programs, have fewer and milder special education students and most often fewer ELL students,” (who need to learn English as a second language.
The Center for Education Reform gave Michigan a score of 42 out of 55, with Washington D.C in first place with 45; Minnesota in second place with 44; Indiana in third place with 43 and Arizona in fifth place with 41. The report did not rank school operation or quality.
More than half of state charter school laws in the United States earn above-average grades according to The Center for Education Reform’s (CER) 15th Edition of Charter School Laws Across the States: Rankings & Scorecard released Monday, March 17.
States boasting the most charter schools are California with 1,120, Texas, 684, Florida 625 and Ohio with 400. States with the fewest include Iowa with 3, Wyoming, 4, Maine, 5, and Virginia, 6.
The states were scored in four areas with up to 15 points for allowing several types of schools than simply the traditional type; up to 10 points for the number of schools authorized; up to 15 points for independence from existing state and district operation rules, except for safety and civil rights standards; and up to 15 points for equity in funding with public as well as other charter schools.
“With the length of the average charter school waiting list increasing to nearly 300 students, there absolutely needs to be a sense of urgency around creating strong charter school laws that will accelerate the pace of growth to meet demand,” said Kara Kerwin, president of the Center for Education Reform.